Today we’re going to talk about an unwritten rule in lead generation that once you are aware of it and take action on it, will change your business forever. This rule is very simple to understand and implement. But it is also constantly overlooked.

There’s a rule that I like to call “The Five-Minute Rule”. This rule simply states that as a business owner you are dedicated to contacting the leads we generate for you within 5 minutes of the time they are received by your establishment.

Here are 3 reasons that you want to follow The Five-Minute Rule.

Increase your Reach Rate

Higher closing ratio

Goodwill and Positioning

#1 – Increasing Your Reach Rate

When responding to leads, a lot of managers will be able to tell me how many callbacks they made and how many appointments they made. But it is very rare that anyone can tell me how many of those callbacks resulted in actually reaching someone.

It’s not just about how many calls you make and how many calls you close or convert. If you use only those two numbers, you’re working harder not smarter. With only those two numbers in mind, you only allow yourself to either make more calls or train your reps to make more sales.

But, when you add reach rate into the mix, you then start to think about how many people you reach and how you can affect that number. It’s a lot easier to affect your sales by calling at different times or calling back faster to increase the amount of people you talk to.

At the end of the day, it’s not about how many calls you made. It’s about how many people you spoke to and how many people said yes.

Just remember… If you don’t have all the data, you don’t know the full story.

QUESTION: How do you increase your reach rate?

ANSWER: Call your prospective customers back within 5 minutes of them expressing interest in your services

#2 – Higher Closing Ratio

We all know that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Well, that’s true with lead generation as well. You can’t setup appointments or close sales with people that you don’t talk to.

Most offices don’t want to waste time calling uninterested prospects, which makes sense. However, if you commit to prioritizing the leads we send you and call them back within 5 minutes, you can eliminate A LOT of wasted time.

The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.

Bottom line: If you don’t call your prospects back within 5 minutes, chances are you’ll never talk to them at all.

QUESTION: How do you increase your closing ratio?

ANSWER: Call your prospective customers back within 5 minutes of them expressing interest in your services

#3 – Goodwill and Positioning

If your competitors are not calling their leads within 5 minutes and you are, then you have already begun to set yourself apart from the competition.

Not only does it impress upon your prospects just how much time and effort you are willing to invest into them, but also it’s a great way to differentiate yourself and your company in a crowded marketplace.

Most companies don’t have the time and willingness to pick up the phone and call a prospect. That is why when your company does, it will prove to your target customer that you care. It will prove that you are different and special.

Here’s the truth… If you care more, you make more.

QUESTION: How do you increase goodwill and positioning in the marketplace?

ANSWER: Call your prospective customers back within 5 minutes of them expressing interest in your services

SHAMELESSPLUG:

If you are a loan officer and you meet the following criteria, let’s talk:

Been in business at least three years

Has at least three people in the office who can follow-up with the leads

Must commit to prioritizing these leads and calling them within 5 minutes

Your Turn

Was this helpful? Can your business commit to The Five-Minute Rule?
Let us know in the comments.

As a business owner and consultant, it’s time for me to make a dramatic shift in the way I do business. This post is to inform all website visitors of my new path.

Over the years, I have helped many business owners with their businesses. I’ve given advice. I’ve written emails. I’ve created webinars. I’ve created funnels. I’ve managed ads and a host of other things that you can find on my LinkedIN profile.

However, it’s time for a major shift. Here’s why…

I enjoy the work I’ve done as a consultant. But I always tell people that they need to very specific in who they work with and what they offer. The problem is that I haven’t been following the same advice I’ve been giving.

Recently, I’ve come across a few people who have been able to help me make that shift. When I spoke with these people, I immediately understood where I was going wrong. I was “busy” helping all sorts of business owners. I was “busy” creating custom solutions for each of these business owners. And I was “busy” wearing myself out doing it too.

It’s like these people crawled inside of my brain, turned the lights on, and started asking (in my Vince Lombardi voice): “What the hell is going on in here?”

It is now very clear who I should be working with and why.

I have recently decided to work exclusively with loan officers. I can help them get exclusive, quality leads that actually want to buy a home. Instead of them buying leads from places like Zillow who sell the same leads to 10 different loan officers. That’s a HUGE problem that I am uniquely capable of solving.

Going forward, I am no longer available to build funnels, write emails, create webinars or any of that stuff. I can do it. I’m good at it. But it’s not what I’m doing anymore. As of now, I am working exclusively with loan officers to get them leads using paid advertising. That’s it and that’s all.

I absolutely love yoga studios. There’s more than 100 of them in the Atlanta area. And I’m on a mission to help them get more clients. Why you ask?

Because yoga is usually the gateway to a holistic and healthy lifestyle. And everyone benefits from that. The student, the teacher, the yoga studio, the community, and the list goes on. It makes good sense (both business and karmic) to help them get more people involved.

The Yellow Pages, billboards, TV, print magazines and radio advertisements don’t work like they used to. And many businesses (not just yoga studios) are suffering because of it.

Month after month individuals and companies are flushing money down the toilet. There have been some instances where a business will spend $10,000 per month (or more) and doesn’t even know if that money brought in any customers.

It’s a disaster. An epidemic. And a tragedy. But here’s the rub…

For the few companies that are forward-thinking, they have either embraced or are looking for someone to help them embrace the digital marketing landscape. Well, what does that mean for your business? Two things really.

If you’re ready to embrace digital marketing and can see the writing on the wall and are looking for someone to help you, then you’re in the driver’s seat.

If you’re not ready to embrace digital marketing, you can’t sit in the car, you have to lay down in the trunk. LOL.

Here’s a quick video to illustrate how I might be able to help your yoga studio get more clients:

When it comes to advertising (or anything worthwhile for that matter), organization and prioritization will help you achieve your goals quickly.

But sometimes there’s no time for organization. No time for prioritization. You just need to get something up to prove that you’re not wasting your time, energy, and effort.

Sound familiar?

There’s a simple process that if followed will allow you to enjoy the fruits of your labor:

Build Your Audience

Build Your Leads

Sell Your Products/Services

Build Your Audience

There are A LOT of businesses and advertising agencies throwing money at Facebook ads. Most of them are doing it all wrong. They select a very broad target, start the ads at $50-$100 a day and then hope and pray something happens. We’re not going to do that.

Understand that when you begin your campaign, you’re not looking to make sales. At least not initially. Your entire goal at the very beginning is building an audience. You want to have broad targeting to start out. Here’s how to do that:

Select targeting that gets you about 500K people to start

Advertise something helpful like a blog post or a video

Create a custom audience of people who engage with your content

Build Your Leads

After you have your custom audience, you’re now ready to start getting some leads. Remember, the audience you advertised to initially is NOT the audience you use for this step. The audience you’re advertising to now is a custom audience of people who engaged with your video or blog post. Those people have already expressed an interest in what you have to say. Now, it’s time to bring them into your world.

For this step in the process, you need to:

Create a new ad set (this is where you select your targeting and budget)

Select your new Custom Audience

Adjust your bidding

Create a new ad that asks people to take the next step

This step is called re-targeting.

I forgot to mention…

Make sure you start your initial ads at $5-$10 per day. Don’t touch it for 3 whole days. Evaluate after 72 hours to determine if you want to continue running the ad or if you’re ready to pause it. When it comes to re-targeting, you can run those ads at $2-$3 per day.

Sell Your Products/Services

Now that you’ve built an audience and ran an ad that asks them to take the next step (opt-in, download, register for webinar, etc.), it’s time to be a little more direct.

You could create another new ad set of people who interacted with your leads post, but that might bring your targeting down to a number less than 100. It’s totally optional. You could just as easily run your direct-to-sale ad to your custom audience. I’m not partial to either. They both work. Test which works best for you.

You are following the same steps from the Build Your Leads process. The only difference here is the ad. The ad should be direct but polite. Ideally, you would send people to your sales page or your consulting page.

Here’s a snapshot of my sales page and consulting page side-by-side:

Your Turn

This is a simple process that can be used by all advertisers, regardless of experience. Did I miss anything? What would you add?

Most businesses are getting robbed blind with overpriced and ineffective marketing. Primarily because they don’t know any better.

Chances are that you have never read a marketing book in your entire life. Chances are that you didn’t go to school for marketing. Chances are that you are a frustrated business owner looking for legitimate and reasonable help with your marketing.

Well, you came to the right place because today you’re going to learn how to avoid getting ripped off by local marketing agencies.

Tip #1: Do Your Research

The internet is an amazing tool that allows anyone to research anyone else in a matter of seconds. You would be surprised how many businesses respond to solicitation without proper due diligence. Don’t be one of them. It’s as simple as a search on Google, Facebook, LinkedIN, or YouTube.

You want to work with people and businesses that have a track record and a background. Look for agencies that post educational content and interact with their peers in the industry. It’s okay to work with someone new, just feel them out. Use your instincts.

Tip #2: Beware of amazing promises

Everything takes time. Very rarely will a marketing agency be able to get you results in 24 hours or less. It happens. But it is rare. A more conservative estimate is 7-10 days. If a company can show you real results within that timeframe for a nominal fee, then you are working with professionals who are looking to build a long-term relationship with you and your business.

Tip #3: Get educated

Reading blogs like this one and others is a great pathway to get yourself educated about digital marketing before you hire a consultant. But it’s impossible to learn everything you need to know by simply reading blogs and watching videos. Eventually, you will need to get some experience by either working on some of this stuff yourself or hiring someone to help you.

If you’re ready to start getting a consistent flow of customer, clients, or patients into your business, schedule a call with us today.

Maybe you’re not ready to talk to us just yet. No worries. We created a Facebook group to bridge the gap.

With over 50% growth in video viewing on Facebook, businesses like yours are driving awareness and sales with Facebook video ads.[1]

Here’s what advertising videos on Facebook can do for you:

Target real people based on their interests, behaviors, age, gender, and location

Reach people across devices (mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop)

Build your very own Custom Audience that you can advertise to later

Now, that you know the power of this advertising method, let’s talk about how you can create video ads that convert.

Step 1: Get Attention

Make sure you get to the point right away. You only have 5-10 seconds to capture someone’s attention. Get to the point and do it fast. Here’s how:

Ask questions

Be Specific

Interrupt the Pattern

Questions like, “Are you still struggling with ____________?” are great openers.

Specificity comes in the form of calling people out. This works really well when doing local ads. Something like, “Attention Atlanta Fitness Club Owners.” You want to call out the location and the proper label for the people you’re looking for. In this case our location is Atlanta and the label is Fitness Club Owners.

Interrupting the pattern is as simple as doing something a little unusual that will make people pay attention. One example is a text overlay at the very beginning of the video telling people to turn up their speakers. Another example is a 5-second countdown timer where the numbers count down prior to the video starting. And the last example is simply adding captions at the bottom of your videos so people can watch without sound.

Step 2: Educate & Inform

This is where you want to give value and discuss your main topic. There is a very specific way to do this that will build instant rapport and credibility. It’s a formula learned from The Cult of Copy called The Viking Velociraptor:

Verify something the audience is seeing, hearing, or thinking

Validate their response

Vantage Point – transition to your topic of choice

Values – relate vantage point to values you have with the audience

Villain – connect values to a villain that you can figuratively throw rocks at with your audience

This takes some practice. But once you get it right, it makes all the difference in your videos.

Step 3: Call To Action

You would be surprised how many businesses create video advertisements for Facebook and leave out the most important part: the Call-To-Action.

Before you create your videos, it is important to know what action you would like people to take after they watch your video. Would you like them to download your eBook, join your Facebook group, or register for your webinar? Well, make sure you tell them that.

The call-to-action doesn’t have to be fancy at all. It can be and should be very simple. All you do is tell people what you want them to do. Here are some examples:

Well, what about spying on your competition to find out who THEIR ideal customers are?

(Insert evil laugh here)

You see, a lot of us overthink our tactics and strategies. We are creative by nature, so naturally, we want to create something new all the time.

But in business you don’t get points (or dollars) for inventing something new. You get paid to solve people’s problems.

Chances are you already have a solution that people might be interested in. The question is, where do you find those people?

Facebook Competition Crusher

Every day we see ads on our timeline. But how often do we stop to think why we’re seeing those ads in the first place?

There’s a very simple way to find out!

This is an ad from a software company called LeadPages. They advertise to me all the time because I am a previous customer and have friends who are customers. I’m a very likely candidate for their software.

When you want to find out why you’re seeing a particular ad, there’s a small arrow in the top-right corner. Click that arrow and the dropdown shown in the screenshot above will appear. When it appears, there will be an option for you to select, “Why am I seeing this?”

As you can see above, I am selected for this advert because I have visited their website and have used the software in the past. They also want to target people who are ages 20 to 55 and live or were recently in the United States. When you put all those parameters together, you find myself and others like me.

Let’s Recap

Spying on your competition is fun, easy, and completely ethical with Facebook

When you see ads on your timeline, find out why you’re seeing them

Use the targeting mentioned as a guideline for your own advertising

Your Turn

Has this been helpful? How do you see yourself using this in your business?
Let me know in the comments

For six long weeks, I’ve been planning, coordinating, and strategizing a local client getting campaign that will be both scalable and effective for myself and my clients. I knew I needed to focus on ONE service for ONE client type, but I just couldn’t nail it down.

But now that I have, I want to let you in on a little secret…

Delivering donuts to dentist offices is a great way to get your foot in the door with local clients. My friend is showing me the ropes and how he’s done it consistently for years now.

All you do is buy a dozen of donuts and drop it off with your business card and a little note. Simple.

What’s the service you ask?

Facebook Advertising for Dentists

There are 3 campaigns that we already have built out. It’s all plug and play. It’s all tested and proven. It works beautifully.

What I’ll be doing is asking local dentists to help me conduct a marketing experiment that will bring qualified leads through their door based on my marketing and advertising efforts. If they like the results of the trial, they sign on as a full-time client with this service.

Would you like to see a video walk-through of the experiment?

]]>https://doneforyouclients.com/donuts-for-dentists/feed/0Is That Mrs. Claus?https://doneforyouclients.com/christmas-in-september/
https://doneforyouclients.com/christmas-in-september/#respondMon, 26 Dec 2016 16:35:51 +0000https://doneforyouclients.com/?p=497This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

A few years ago, a woman took a flight from New York to San Francisco. She had never left the East Coast of the United States but was heading to a corporate networking event on behalf of her company.

She dressed very carefully to ensure maximum authority in her red business suit and matching heels. As she exited the plane and walked through San Francisco International Airport, she removed her sandals from her handbag and replaced her heels.

A young boy approached her who couldn’t have been more than four years old and asked her, “Are you Mrs. Claus? I thought I wouldn’t see you until Christmas.” It was September. The young lady looked at the parents of the young boy and they gave a nod confirming that she should play along. “Yes. I am Mrs. Claus. How are you today?” The young boy said, “I’m well. Will you take a picture with me?”

The young boy and Mrs. Claus had an impromptu photo shoot in front of Starbucks. After a few minutes, the boy’s father said, “Todd, let’s move along now. Mrs. Claus is very busy.” Todd and his parents gave thanks to the young woman and waved happily as they walked away.

The crowd at Starbucks witnessed the encounter and applauded Mrs. Claus as she sat down at her table to look over her notes. She was happily surprised by all the attention. The manager walked over to her table and handed her a $100 gift card to show his appreciation.

When the manager stepped away an older gentleman came and sat down at her table and said, “You know, I’ve played Santa for many years and I must say that I truly appreciate what you did for Todd and his parents. I just wanted to tell you that you are a wonderful woman and you are truly appreciated.”

After the older gentleman left the table, a female barista tapped Mrs. Claus on the shoulder and introduced herself, “Hi. My name is Samantha. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Mrs. Claus said, “Hi Samantha, I’m Kelly. It’s a pleasure meeting you as well.” Samantha said, “You look really busy. I’ll leave you alone. I just wanted to come over and introduce myself.” Kelly said, “No. It’s okay. Let’s talk for a bit.”

As the conversation continued, Kelly found out that Samantha was attending City College of San Francisco and studying communications. She had an interest in business and marketing and had a 3.5 GPA. Kelly gave Samantha her card and asked her to call her Boston office line one week from the day.

Kelly left Starbucks, took a cab to her hotel, checked-in and took a quick nap. The slumber lasted a little too long and by the time she awoke, there was only 30 minutes left before the event. She was the first speaker and absolutely could not be late. Luckily the meeting was held in the hotel where she was staying.

She got in the shower, slipped her suit back on, hand-ironed it, fixed her hair quickly and left her hotel room with 10 minutes to spare. She got off the elevator walking quickly. And that’s when it happened. She stumbled and fell forward, papers flew everywhere. And she was only about 300 feet from the auditorium.

She got up dusted off her knees, realized her stockings were toast, and suddenly felt a gust of wind in her unmentionables. The rear seam of her skirt had split all the way up to her waist. She ducked into the hotel gift shop, bought a new pair of stockings and a ton of safety pins. She then went to the ladies room and fixed herself up. With only two minutes to spare, she entered the backstage area, stepped from behind the curtain, and gave her presentation. For 30 minutes, she presented masterfully, took questions, and never turned her back.

When her presentation was over, a C-suite executive walked right up to her and said, “I would like to hire your firm to create a marketing campaign for us.” Kelly graciously accepted the offer and asked the man to meet her at the hotel restaurant in 15 minutes.

In the restaurant, the man introduced himself as Braddock and spoke of his business and their marketing needs at length. Then, he said something that surprised Kelly.

“You know Kelly, I don’t typically believe in coincidences but three things happened to you today that I was a part of and they showed me your character. Let me tell you what happened.

First, you took pictures with my grandson Todd as if you were Mrs. Claus. Then, you sat down with my niece Samantha and offered to help her with mentoring and possibly a career opportunity. Next, you slipped and fell when you came off the elevator, ruined your stockings and your skirt and not only did you arrive to conduct your presentation on time, you presented flawlessly.

I want you to know that I’m part-owner of this hotel and I’m asking you to accept a tentative agreement to work with us exclusively on several marketing campaigns for the next 12 months. I know that you’re currently a Marketing Manager at your firm, but I called up Julian, your Marketing Director, and asked him to promote you to Assistant Director and have you be the point-person for the entire contract.

I understand that this is a lot to process and you might be a little surprised by it all. But I only have one question, does this sound like something you would be interested in?”

Kelly said, “Yes. I would absolutely be interested. Thank you so much.”

Kelly and Braddock continued their meal, agreed to terms, and shook hands.

There are a myriad of ways to attract, enroll, and retain customers. At Done-For-You Clients we only focus on four of them:

Paid Facebook Advertising

Google Pay-Per-Click

Cold Calling 2.0

Speaking Engagements

Facebook Advertising

As you’re well aware, Facebook advertising is all the rage these days. Targeting based on interests, behaviors, income, geography, age and just about everything else makes Facebook the premier advertising platform of today. No matter what business you’re in, you can get more customers by using Facebook Advertising

Google Pay-Per-Click

Google PPC is very similar to Facebook Advertising because they both use Pay-Per-Click as their model. There’s also something called CPM which is cost per thousand impressions. We can discuss more about that later. For now, let’s focus on Google PPC.

Let’s say you’re an attorney, dentist, or chiropractor. Although Facebook Advertising might work for you, you’re much better served with Google PPC. Primarily because people go to Google and type in what problem they’re having. If your solution can solve their problem and they find you at the top of the search results for what they typed in, they are VERY likely to choose your establishment. Conversely, if you’re not there and your competition is, they get the business instead of you.

Cold Calling 2.0

Before the Internet (B.I.) cold calling and newspaper advertising were the primary ways to promote your business. Cold calling and newspaper advertisements still work, but nowadays they require just a bit more technology than they did about 40 or 50 years ago.

Cold Calling 2.0 is simply sending an email to the business owner prior to making a phone call. Since you sent correspondence ahead of your call, the call itself becomes more lukewarm than cold. It’s actually quite feasible to compile a list of your ideal clients, send short emails that solve a specific problem, and get people to respond. The guys over at Close.io do it every single day.

KEY: Be sure to include a short 3-5 minute video in the email explaining your pitch a bit more. Focus on the potential customer’s problem more than your solution.

Speaking Engagements

According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. However, standing on stage and presenting your offer to people who can clearly benefit from it, is the absolute fastest way to get customers. And here’s three reasons why:

Public speaking builds instant credibility

Public speaking allows you to make friends fast

Public speaking (since it’s so feared by so many) gives you the ability to be seen as a hero, champion, and pioneer

Speaking isn’t for everyone. But if you have a fascinating and magnetic personality, it’s easy for you to get started. Simply ask around at networking events and/or search the Internet. Opportunities are boundless for those that can stand in front of an audience and deliver a compelling presentation.

Your Turn

As previously stated, there are many ways to acquire customers. The four ways listed above require a strategic approach, attention to detail, and decisive action. Are you ready to implement one (or maybe all four) into your business?